Daily Cycling Facts 21.08.2014

Keetie van Oosten-Hage

Keetie van Oosten-Hage
Born in Sint-Maartensdijk, Netherlands, on this day in 1949, is one of four cycling siblings: her sisters Ciska van Velzen-Hage, Heleen Hage and Bella van de Spiegel-Hage were also successful riders (as, for that matter, is nephew Jan van Helzen) - Keetie, Heleen and Bella all rode for the Beck's Bier team in 1977.

1966 was her first really good year with nine criterium wins and her first National Championship title, in Individual Pursuit, plus a silver medal at the National Road Race Championship; and the year after that she won fourteen crits and successfully defended her title. Then in 1968 she won ten crits, defended the Pursuit again - and won the World Road Race Championships. She kept the Pursuit title until 1978, when she took the silver, and was World Pursuit Champion in 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1979; she also won the National Road Race Championship form 1969 to 1976 and the National Omnium Championship in 1979.

Van Oosten-Hage retired in 1979, not because she was tired but because of the lack of races available to her - women's cycling didn't feature in the Olympics at that time and women's Grand Tours the Giro Donne, Tour de l'Aude and Tour de France Féminine did not yet exist (she said later that she'd have loved to have ridden the latter event). "I had won all the races there were," she explained.  "They included six world championships and several Dutch championships and a big race in America. There comes a point when it makes your ambitions less. I was still winning, but I had done it all." It is very easy to make a comparison here with that other Dutch superstar Marianne Vos, who has won so many races that her Rabobank team reportedly considered entering her into men's races simply to prevent her becoming bored.

Also like Vos, van Oosten-Hage faced accusations that she was too good, that her vast number of races wins left other riders feeling they could never beat her; fortunately most people are now agreed that a rider of such calibre is good for cycling because her success encourages other riders to strive harder, but in time van Oosten-Hage came to agree with her detractors: "Usually I won. A lot of people said at least now you have gone it will give other people a chance and we can use different tactics and so on. I can understand the other girls getting disillusioned because I usually won, and I suppose in retrospect that is not necessarily so good for the sport." It is a very great shame that she has been made to feel regretful about a great career during which she must have inspired many other women to start cycling.

The world was beginning to wake up to the existence of women's cycling by the early 1980s and, as they so often are, the Dutch KNWU national federation was at the vanguard; they gave her a job  running a program designed to ensure younger women would take her place and continue bringing trophies back to the Netherlands. However, the national team coaches - in some cases with good intentions and in others, no doubt, out of resentment that a woman had been given a responsible position in "their" sport - would frequently undo her hard work. She found this frustrating and, by 1985 considered becoming a coach herself but ultimately decided that at the age of 36 the training and examinations were more than she was willing to take on (some contemporary reports also claimed that the KNWU took steps to block her - they hadn't progressed quite that far, it seems).

In the years after her professional career, van Oosten-Hage gave away all her National and Worlds jerseys. "At the time they are nice to have, but then they are not so important and they mean more to other people," she says. "Now, of course, I regret it, but it is too late."

Erik Dekker

Erik Dekker at the Tour, 2005

Born in Hoogeveen, Netherkands in this day in 1970, Hendrik "Erik" Dekker entered his first race when he was eight. He didn't win that one, but it wasn't long before he started winning others; when he turned 15 he was selected for the National Juniors Track Team, and two years later he won a silver medal at the World Juniors Championships.

By the time he won a silver at the National Amateur Championships in 1992, Dekker had already won stages at the important Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda and Olympia's Tour races - this promising track record, combined with two stage wins at the Österreich-Rundfahrt, a prologue victory at the GP William Tell, Stage 10 at the Tour de l'Avenir and first place at the Rund um Köln in the wake of his Nationals medal made him an obvious choice for the Olympic team and entered for the road race. He, together with Fabio Casartelli and a third rider managed to break away from the peloton during the event and could not be caught - Casartelli won, but Dekker's exuberance as he crossed the line earned him many new fans. He had begun riding for the Buckler team at the start of the year (managed by Joop Zoetemelk and Jan Raas, no less) and at the end he was given a full professional contract.

Dekker in 2011

1993 passed quietly, as tends to be the case when a rider first begins to compete at the top level, then in 1994 he won the Postgirot Open and a stage at the Tour of the Basque Country. He was also picked for the team's Tour de France squad and survived the race; he was 101st overall, but two 20th place stage finishes and one in 15th are respectable for a debutant. He won the Postgirot again the following year and managed to improve his Tour finish to 70th place, then slipped a few places in 1996 with 74th, racing that year in red, white and blue as National Independent Time Trial Champion. He performed less well again in 1997 with 81st, but got into the top ten on three stages, including coming near to the podium with fifth place for Stages 17 and 20. 1998 had to be written off due to injuries suffered in a crash, which may also account for 107th place in the 1999 Tour (it might have inspired him to seek a little chemical assistance towards proving he still had the ability to win too, because he got into a spot of bother with a suspiciously high haematocrit reading - indicating possible EPO use and/or a blood transfusion - and as barred from competition until his red blood cells had returned to an acceptable level); but he found better form than ever before in 2000 - after riding his first Giro d'Italia (and coming 121st), he went back to the Tour, won Stages 8 and 17, came 51st in the General Classification and fifth overall in the Points competition.

2001 was, overall, every bit as good: his Tour result slipped to 91st with victory in Stage 8, but he won the Road World Cup, the Vuelta a Andalucia, the Amstel Gold Race, the Profronde van Surhuisterveen and the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt. In 2002 he won Tirreno-Adriatico and another National Time Trial Championship, but 136th at the Tour seemed to be show that any chance he might once have had of breaking into the top ten overall or even winning the Points competition were now gone; also, new injuries badly affected his performance towards the end of the year and throughout the next. Nevertheless, after winning the National Road Race title in 2004 he was back in France and riding faithfully for the team, settling for 133rd place for himself and then cheering himself up with overall victory at the Ronde van Nederland; then he rode the Tour again in 2005 and for a final time in 2006.

Faithfulness to the team is very much the keyword when describing Dekker's career. Buckler picked up a new sponsor in Dekker's second year, becoming WordPerfect for two seasons; then became Novell for 1995. In 1996, it changed to Rabobank and is still known as such, the Dutch bank being one of the few sponsors who got involved in cycling and stuck with it (they also back women's cycling and other sports, being that very rare thing - a company that sponsors sports not only for advertising, but because it actually cares). Dekker stayed with them throughout, for his entire career, and since retiring from competition he has continued to serve them as a team manager.


Jessica Allen, born in Brecon, Wales on this day in 1989, earned a place on British Cycling's Olympic Development Programme in 2006 after being discovered by the Welsh Talent Team; that year she also won the Junior National Time Trial Championships for the first of two  consecutive years and came second at the Welsh National Road Race Championships, then in 2007 she won the Points race at the National Track Championships. In 2008 Allen competed in both the Under-23 and Elite National Road Race Championships, taking second place in the former and fourth in the latter as well as coming third in the National Individual Time Trial Championship.

Maria Blower, born in Leicester, Great Britain on this day in 1964, was third in the National Road Race Championship of 1982; second at the Nationals, third at the Tour of Norway and 29th at the Olympics of 1984; third at the Nationals and eighth at the Olympics of 1988 and third at the Nationals in 1989.

Settino "Timo" Sabbadini, born in Monsempron-Limos, France on this day in 1928, turned professional with Terrot-Wolber in 1950 and retired in 1964 after nine years with Mercier. He won numerous criterium races, but occasionally showed up on the podium in stage races too, sometimes in the most prestigious ones: in 1956 he won Stage 4 at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and in 1958 Stage 5 at the Tour de France.

Businessman Manfred Neun,who was born Heidenheim, West Germany on this day in 1950, and began his career  working in a bank and managing two businesses, one of them a horticultural firm and the other a bike manufacturer. A keen cyclist himself, he currently serves as President of the European Cycling Federation, where his knowledge of cycling and politics has allowed him to act as an effective bridge between cyclists and government. Under his leadership, the ECF has taken an increasingly scientific approach in its mission to promote cycling as sport and as a method of transport, allowing it to back up programs designed to improve cycling infrastructure with accurate studies and facts.

"Cycling means happiness, cycling is community building and as everyone can have a bicycle, cycling is democracy. We can be an example for the whole world. So let us all live like examples." - Manfred Neun

Other cyclists born on this day: Ross Reid (Great Britain, 1987); Preeda Chullamondhol (Thailand, 1945); Koji Fukushima (Japan, 1973); Rodolfo Guaves (Philippines, 1953); Ferenc Stámusz (Hungary, 1934); Carlos Mesa (Colombia, 1955); Samuel Hunter (Great Britain, 1894); Bernhard Eckstein (Germany, 1935); Carlos Alcantara (Uruguay, 1948); Daniel Steiger (Switzerland, 1966).

Daily Cycling Facts 06.09.2013

Thomas Dekker

Thomas Dekker
Born in Amsterdam on this day in 1984, Thomas Dekker joined Rabobank's junior team in 2002 and moved up to their GS3 development squad the following year, staying there for eight months until he was moved up to a traineeship with the top-level ProTour team. He began 2005 with a full professional contract. That same year, he won a stage and came second overall at the Critérium International, rode his first Giro d'Italia, won a stage at the Tour of Poland and won the National Time Trial Championship for the second consecutive year.

In 2006 Dekker won Tirreno-Adriatico, then two stage wins and victory in both the Points competition and General Classification at the Tour de Romandie early in 2007 influenced Rabobank to select him for the Tour de France. He let it be known before the race that he was aiming to win the Youth category; but, as so often happens when a rider makes his Tour debut, competition turned out to be far stiffer than he had expected - he was sixth among the young riders and 35th overall. 2008 proved to be an off-year, his results early in the season sufficiently poor for Rabobank to leave him out of the Tour squad. He announced in August that he would be leaving the team.

Dekker in 2006

Late in 2008, rumours emerged that he would be riding for Garmin-Chipotle in 2009 but were apparently proved unfounded when he revealed he had signed to Silence-Lotto until the end of 2010. His results were not promising again at the start of 2009, but he was selected for the Tour anyway - then, on the 1st of July, news broke that an out-of-competition sample he provided a year and a half earlier in December 2007, had tested positive for EPO. He denied the charge, but the team withdrew him from the Tour pending investigation and, when his B sample also tested positive, sacked him. Dekker then apologised and admitted that he had used the drug, but claimed to have done o only once and called it a mistake - he would later confess that he had used it at various times during 2007 and 2008. Nevertheless, he was given a back-dated two-year ban from competition in March 2010. The UCI later revealed that unusual blood values had been noted on his biological passport and that he had been highlighted for special attention for that reason; in his autobiography, Dekker claims that he had been ready to sign a contract with Garmin in 2008 but manager Jonathan Vaughters turned him down after spotting unusual blood values (Vaughters, at the time, denied that a contract had been offered). This would not be the only time he was connected to doping - he came under suspicion due to his links to Luigi Cecchini, who had studied under the notorious Francesco Conconi. He denies that Cecchini was in anyway connected to his decision to dope, and it should be remembered that Cecchini, though connected to numerous high-profile doping cases, is a respected sports doctor who has also worked with many riders not considered likely to use doping methods - among them Fabian Cancellara and post-ban David Millar.

Dekker's ban ended on the 30th of June in 2011 and he made his return to racing a week later. In August it was announced that Jonathan Vaughters - to his eternal credit - was giving him a second chance with a contract to ride for Garmin-Cervélo's Chipotle-Sugar Labs development team. In September, he and Johan Vansummeren won the Duo Normand Pairrs Time Trial, beating the record time set by Vaughters and Jens Voigt a decade earlier. With his debts paid, apologies made and rehabilitation into cycling society complete, he was given a full professional contract with Garmin-Barracuda for the 2012 season. He was still with them in 2013, when the team had become Garmin-Sharp.

Bruno Risi
(image credit: Armin Kübelbeck)

Bruno Risi, born in Erstfeld, Switzerland on this day in 1968, was a professional between 1991 and 2006. During that time he was World Points Champion in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999 and 2001 and World Madison Champion (with Franco Marvulli) in 2003 and 2007. He has also held a total of 15 National Championship and two European Championship titles and won numerous road races.

Veselin Petrović, born in Vlasenica (now Bosnia and Herzegovina) on this day in 1929, was twice Road Race Champion and four times Time Trial Champion of Yugoslavia. He maintained his links to cycling after retiring from competition, becoming director of the Tours of Serbia and Yugoslavia and chairman of the National Cycling Selection Committee, the Serbian Cycling Association and Belgrade's Partizan CC as well a serving as the UCI's official representative for Yugoslavia. He died on the 8th of November in 1995.

Gianbattista Baronchelli, who was born in Italy on this day in 1953, won numerous prestigious races during his sixteen year professional career, which began with SCIC in 1974 after he was passed over by Molteni due to fears that he would clash with team leader Eddy Merckx. Among them were two Giri di Lombardia, two Giri di Toscana, the Tour of the Basque Country, the Tour de Romandie and a record six (consecutive) editions of the Giro dell'Appennino. He also won the Tour de l'Avenir in 1974 and was believed a likely Grand Tour winner of the future; however, cycling's greatest prizes eluded him - he came second twice and third once at the Giro d'Italia, won a silver medal at the 1980 World Championships and was unable to finish the Tour de France on either of his two attempts.

Other cyclists born on this day: Rudie Liebrechts (Netherlands, 1941); Andoni Lafuente (Euskadi, 1985); Radomír Šimunek, Jr (Czechoslovakia, 1983); Michael Vermeulin (France, 1934); Steve Chainel (France, 1983); Miyoko Karami (Japan, 1974); Jorge Hernández (Colombia, 1948); Clóvis Anderson (Brazil, 1963); Patrick Wackström (Finland, 1958); Herbert Honz (West Germany, 1942); Justo Galaviz (Venezuela, 1954); Garen Bloch (South Africa, 1978); Franz Neuens (Luxembourg, 1912, died 1985); Wolfgang Steinmayr (Austria, 1944).

Daily Cycling Facts 21.08.2013

Keetie van Oosten-Hage

Keetie van Oosten-Hage
Born in Sint-Maartensdijk, Netherlands, on this day in 1949, is one of four cycling siblings: her sisters Ciska van Velzen-Hage, Heleen Hage and Bella van de Spiegel-Hage were also successful riders (as, for that matter, is nephew Jan van Helzen) - Keetie, Heleen and Bella all rode for the Beck's Bier team in 1977.

1966 was her first really good year with nine criterium wins and her first National Championship title, in Individual Pursuit, plus a silver medal at the National Road Race Championship; and the year after that she won fourteen crits and successfully defended her title. Then in 1968 she won ten crits, defended the Pursuit again - and won the World Road Race Championships. She kept the Pursuit title until 1978, when she took the silver, and was World Pursuit Champion in 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1979; she also won the National Road Race Championship form 1969 to 1976 and the National Omnium Championship in 1979.

Van Oosten-Hage retired in 1979, not because she was tired but because of the lack of races available to her - women's cycling didn't feature in the Olympics at that time and women's Grand Tours the Giro Donne, Tour de l'Aude and Tour de France Féminine did not yet exist (she said later that she'd have loved to have ridden the latter event). "I had won all the races there were," she explained.  "They included six world championships and several Dutch championships and a big race in America. There comes a point when it makes your ambitions less. I was still winning, but I had done it all." It is very easy to make a comparison here with that other Dutch superstar Marianne Vos, who has won so many races that her Rabobank team reportedly considered entering her into men's races simply to prevent her becoming bored.

Also like Vos, van Oosten-Hage faced accusations that she was too good, that her vast number of races wins left other riders feeling they could never beat her; fortunately most people are now agreed that a rider of such calibre is good for cycling because her success encourages other riders to strive harder, but in time van Oosten-Hage came to agree with her detractors: "Usually I won. A lot of people said at least now you have gone it will give other people a chance and we can use different tactics and so on. I can understand the other girls getting disillusioned because I usually won, and I suppose in retrospect that is not necessarily so good for the sport." It is a very great shame that she has been made to feel regretful about a great career during which she must have inspired many other women to start cycling.

The world was beginning to wake up to the existence of women's cycling by the early 1980s and, as they so often are, the Dutch KNWU national federation was at the vanguard; they gave her a job  running a program designed to ensure younger women would take her place and continue bringing trophies back to the Netherlands. However, the national team coaches - in some cases with good intentions and in others, no doubt, out of resentment that a woman had been given a responsible position in "their" sport - would frequently undo her hard work. She found this frustrating and, by 1985 considered becoming a coach herself but ultimately decided that at the age of 36 the training and examinations were more than she was willing to take on (some contemporary reports also claimed that the KNWU took steps to block her - they hadn't progressed quite that far, it seems).

In the years after her professional career, van Oosten-Hage gave away all her National and Worlds jerseys. "At the time they are nice to have, but then they are not so important and they mean more to other people," she says. "Now, of course, I regret it, but it is too late."

Erik Dekker

Erik Dekker at the Tour, 2005

Born in Hoogeveen, Netherkands in this day in 1970, Hendrik "Erik" Dekker entered his first race when he was eight. He didn't win that one, but it wasn't long before he started winning others; when he turned 15 he was selected for the National Juniors Track Team, and two years later he won a silver medal at the World Juniors Championships.

By the time he won a silver at the National Amateur Championships in 1992, Dekker had already won stages at the important Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda and Olympia's Tour races - this promising track record, combined with two stage wins at the Österreich-Rundfahrt, a prologue victory at the GP William Tell, Stage 10 at the Tour de l'Avenir and first place at the Rund um Köln in the wake of his Nationals medal made him an obvious choice for the Olympic team and entered for the road race. He, together with Fabio Casartelli and a third rider managed to break away from the peloton during the event and could not be caught - Casartelli won, but Dekker's exuberance as he crossed the line earned him many new fans. He had begun riding for the Buckler team at the start of the year (managed by Joop Zoetemelk and Jan Raas, no less) and at the end he was given a full professional contract.

Dekker in 2011

1993 passed quietly, as tends to be the case when a rider first begins to compete at the top level, then in 1994 he won the Postgirot Open and a stage at the Tour of the Basque Country. He was also picked for the team's Tour de France squad and survived the race; he was 101st overall, but two 20th place stage finishes and one in 15th are respectable for a debutant. He won the Postgirot again the following year and managed to improve his Tour finish to 70th place, then slipped a few places in 1996 with 74th, racing that year in red, white and blue as National Independent Time Trial Champion. He performed less well again in 1997 with 81st, but got into the top ten on three stages, including coming near to the podium with fifth place for Stages 17 and 20. 1998 had to be written off due to injuries suffered in a crash, which may also account for 107th place in the 1999 Tour (it might have inspired him to seek a little chemical assistance towards proving he still had the ability to win too, because he got into a spot of bother with a suspiciously high haematocrit reading - indicating possible EPO use and/or a blood transfusion - and as barred from competition until his red blood cells had returned to an acceptable level); but he found better form than ever before in 2000 - after riding his first Giro d'Italia (and coming 121st), he went back to the Tour, won Stages 8 and 17, came 51st in the General Classification and fifth overall in the Points competition.

2001 was, overall, every bit as good: his Tour result slipped to 91st with victory in Stage 8, but he won the Road World Cup, the Vuelta a Andalucia, the Amstel Gold Race, the Profronde van Surhuisterveen and the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt. In 2002 he won Tirreno-Adriatico and another National Time Trial Championship, but 136th at the Tour seemed to be show that any chance he might once have had of breaking into the top ten overall or even winning the Points competition were now gone; also, new injuries badly affected his performance towards the end of the year and throughout the next. Nevertheless, after winning the National Road Race title in 2004 he was back in France and riding faithfully for the team, settling for 133rd place for himself and then cheering himself up with overall victory at the Ronde van Nederland; then he rode the Tour again in 2005 and for a final time in 2006.

Faithfulness to the team is very much the keyword when describing Dekker's career. Buckler picked up a new sponsor in Dekker's second year, becoming WordPerfect for two seasons; then became Novell for 1995. In 1996, it changed to Rabobank and is still known as such, the Dutch bank being one of the few sponsors who got involved in cycling and stuck with it (they also back women's cycling and other sports, being that very rare thing - a company that sponsors sports not only for advertising, but because it actually cares). Dekker stayed with them throughout, for his entire career, and since retiring from competition he has continued to serve them as a team manager.


Jessica Allen, born in Brecon, Wales on this day in 1989, earned a place on British Cycling's Olympic Development Programme in 2006 after being discovered by the Welsh Talent Team; that year she also won the Junior National Time Trial Championships for the first of two  consecutive years and came second at the Welsh National Road Race Championships, then in 2007 she won the Points race at the National Track Championships. In 2008 Allen competed in both the Under-23 and Elite National Road Race Championships, taking second place in the former and fourth in the latter as well as coming third in the National Individual Time Trial Championship.

Maria Blower, born in Leicester, Great Britain on this day in 1964, was third in the National Road Race Championship of 1982; second at the Nationals, third at the Tour of Norway and 29th at the Olympics of 1984; third at the Nationals and eighth at the Olympics of 1988 and third at the Nationals in 1989.

Settino "Timo" Sabbadini, born in Monsempron-Limos, France on this day in 1928, turned professional with Terrot-Wolber in 1950 and retired in 1964 after nine years with Mercier. He won numerous criterium races, but occasionally showed up on the podium in stage races too, sometimes in the most prestigious ones: in 1956 he won Stage 4 at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and in 1958 Stage 5 at the Tour de France.

Businessman Manfred Neun,who was born Heidenheim, West Germany on this day in 1950, and began his career  working in a bank and managing two businesses, one of them a horticultural firm and the other a bike manufacturer. A keen cyclist himself, he currently serves as President of the European Cycling Federation, where his knowledge of cycling and politics has allowed him to act as an effective bridge between cyclists and government. Under his leadership, the ECF has taken an increasingly scientific approach in its mission to promote cycling as sport and as a method of transport, allowing it to back up programs designed to improve cycling infrastructure with accurate studies and facts.

"Cycling means happiness, cycling is community building and as everyone can have a bicycle, cycling is democracy. We can be an example for the whole world. So let us all live like examples." - Manfred Neun

Other cyclists born on this day: Ross Reid (Great Britain, 1987); Preeda Chullamondhol (Thailand, 1945); Koji Fukushima (Japan, 1973); Rodolfo Guaves (Philippines, 1953); Ferenc Stámusz (Hungary, 1934); Carlos Mesa (Colombia, 1955); Samuel Hunter (Great Britain, 1894); Bernhard Eckstein (Germany, 1935); Carlos Alcantara (Uruguay, 1948); Daniel Steiger (Switzerland, 1966).

Daily Cycling Facts 06.09.12

Thomas Dekker

Thomas Dekker
Born in Amsterdam on this day in 1984, Thomas Dekker joined Rabobank's junior team in 2002 and moved up to their GS3 development squad the following year, staying there for eight months until he was moved up to a traineeship with the top-level ProTour team. He began 2005 with a full professional contract. That same year, he won a stage and came second overall at the Critérium International, rode his first Giro d'Italia, won a stage at the Tour of Poland and won the National Time Trial Championship for the second consecutive year.

In 2006 Dekker won Tirreno-Adriatico, then two stage wins and victory in both the Points competition and General Classification at the Tour de Romandie early in 2007 influenced Rabobank to select him for the Tour de France. He let it be known before the race that he was aiming to win the Youth category; but, as so often happens when a rider makes his Tour debut, competition turned out to be far stiffer than he had expected - he was sixth among the young riders and 35th overall. 2008 proved to be an off-year, his results early in the season sufficiently poor for Rabobank to leave him out of the Tour squad. He announced in August that he would be leaving the team.

Dekker in 2006

Late in 2008, rumours emerged that he would be riding for Garmin-Chipotle in 2009 but were apparently proved unfounded when he revealed he had signed to Silence-Lotto until the end of 2010. His results were not promising again at the start of 2009, but he was selected for the Tour anyway - then, on the 1st of July, news broke that an out-of-competition sample he provided a year and a half earlier in December 2007, had tested positive for EPO. He denied the charge, but the team withdrew him from the Tour pending investigation and, when his B sample also tested positive, sacked him. Dekker then apologised and admitted that he had used the drug, but claimed to have done o only once and called it a mistake - he would later confess that he had used it at various times during 2007 and 2008. Nevertheless, he was given a back-dated two-year ban from competition in March 2010. The UCI later revealed that unusual blood values had been noted on his biological passport and that he had been highlighted for special attention for that reason; in his autobiography, Dekker claims that he had been ready to sign a contract with Garmin in 2008 but manager Jonathan Vaughters turned him down after spotting unusual blood values (Vaughters, at the time, denied that a contract had been offered). This would not be the only time he was connected to doping - he came under suspicion due to his links to Luigi Cecchini, who had studied under the notorious Francesco Conconi. He denies that Cecchini was in anyway connected to his decision to dope, and it should be remembered that Cecchini, though connected to numerous high-profile doping cases, is a respected sports doctor who has also worked with many riders not considered likely to use doping methods - among them Fabian Cancellara and post-ban David Millar.

Dekker's ban ended on the 30th of June in 2011 and he made his return to racing a week later. In August it was announced that Jonathan Vaughters - to his eternal credit - was giving him a second chance with a contract to ride for Garmin-Cervélo's Chipotle-Sugar Labs development team. In September, he and Johan Vansummeren won the Duo Normand Pairrs Time Trial, beating the record time set by Vaughters and Jens Voigt a decade earlier. With his debts paid, apologies made and rehabilitation into cycling society complete, he was given a full professional contract with Garmin-Barracuda for the 2012 season.

Bruno Risi
(image credit: Armin Kübelbeck)

Bruno Risi, born in Erstfeld, Switzerland on this day in 1968, was a professional between 1991 and 2006. During that time he was World Points Champion in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999 and 2001 and World Madison Champion (with Franco Marvulli) in 2003 and 2007. He has also held a total of 15 National Championship and two European Championship titles and won numerous road races.

Veselin Petrović, born in Vlasenica (now Bosnia and Herzegovina) on this day in 1929, was twice Road Race Champion and four times Time Trial Champion of Yugoslavia. He maintained his links to cycling after retiring from competition, becoming director of the Tours of Serbia and Yugoslavia and chairman of the National Cycling Selection Committee, the Serbian Cycling Association and Belgrade's Partizan CC as well a serving as the UCI's official representative for Yugoslavia. He died on the 8th of November in 1995.

Gianbattista Baronchelli, who was born in Italy on this day in 1953, won numerous prestigious races during his sixteen year professional career, which began with SCIC in 1974 after he was passed over by Molteni due to fears that he would clash with team leader Eddy Merckx. Among them were two Giri di Lombardia, two Giri di Toscana, the Tour of the Basque Country, the Tour de Romandie and a record six (consecutive) editions of the Giro dell'Appennino. He also won the Tour de l'Avenir in 1974 and was believed a likely Grand Tour winner of the future; however, cycling's greatest prizes eluded him - he came second twice and third once at the Giro d'Italia, won a silver medal at the 1980 World Championships and was unable to finish the Tour de France on either of his two attempts.

Other cyclists born on this day: Rudie Liebrechts (Netherlands, 1941); Andoni Lafuente (Euskadi, 1985); Radomír Šimunek, Jr (Czechoslovakia, 1983); Michael Vermeulin (France, 1934); Steve Chainel (France, 1983); Miyoko Karami (Japan, 1974); Jorge Hernández (Colombia, 1948); Clóvis Anderson (Brazil, 1963); Patrick Wackström (Finland, 1958); Herbert Honz (West Germany, 1942); Justo Galaviz (Venezuela, 1954); Garen Bloch (South Africa, 1978); Franz Neuens (Luxembourg, 1912, died 1985); Wolfgang Steinmayr (Austria, 1944).

Daily Cycling Facts 21.08.12

Keetie van Oosten-Hage

Keetie van Oosten-Hage
Born in Sint-Maartensdijk, Netherlands, on this day in 1949, is one of four cycling siblings: her sisters Ciska van Velzen-Hage, Heleen Hage and Bella van de Spiegel-Hage were also successful riders (as, for that matter, is nephew Jan van Helzen) - Keetie, Heleen and Bella all rode for the Beck's Bier team in 1977.

1966 was her first really good year with nine criterium wins and her first National Championship title, in Individual Pursuit, plus a silver medal at the National Road Race Championship; and the year after that she won fourteen crits and successfully defended her title. Then in 1968 she won ten crits, defended the Pursuit again - and won the World Road Race Championships. She kept the Pursuit title until 1978, when she took the silver, and was World Pursuit Champion in 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1979; she also won the National Road Race Championship form 1969 to 1976 and the National Omnium Championship in 1979.

Van Oosten-Hage retired in 1979, not because she was tired but because of the lack of races available to her - women's cycling didn't feature in the Olympics at that time and women's Grand Tours the Giro Donne, Tour de l'Aude and Tour de France Féminine (she said later that she'd have loved to have ridden the latter event). "I had won all the races there were," she explained.  "They included six world championships and several Dutch championships and a big race in America. There comes a point when it makes your ambitions less. I was still winning, but I had done it all." It is very easy to make a comparison here with that other Dutch superstar Marianne Vos, who has won so many races that her Rabobank team considered entering her into men's races simply to prevent her becoming bored. Like Vos, van Oosten-Hage faced accusations that she was too good, that her vast number of races wins left other riders feeling they could never beat her; fortunately most people are now agreed that a rider such as Vos is good for cycling because her success encourages other riders to strive harder, but in time van Oosten-Hage came to agree with her detractors: "Usually I won. A lot of people said at least now you have gone it will give other people a chance and we can use different tactics and so on. I can understand the other girls getting disillusioned because I usually won, and I suppose in retrospect that is not necessarily so good for the sport." It is a very great shame that she has been made to feel regretful about a great career during which she must have inspired many other women to start cycling.

The world was beginning to wake up to the existence of women's cycling by the early 1980s and, as they so often are, the Dutch KNWU national federation was at the vanguard; they gave her a job  running a program designed to ensure younger women would take her place and continue bringing trophies back to the Netherlands. However, the national team coaches - in some cases with good intentions and in others, no doubt, out of resentment that a woman had been given a responsible position in "their" sport - would frequently undo her hard work. She found this frustrating and, by 1985 considered becoming a coach herself but ultimately decided that at the age of 36 the training and examinations were more than she was willing to take on (some contemporary reports also claimed that the KNWU took steps to block her - they hadn't progressed quite that far, it seems).

In the years after her professional career, van Oosten-Hage gave away all her National and Worlds jerseys. "At the time they are nice to have, but then they are not so important and they mean more to other people," she says. "Now, of course, I regret it, but it is too late."

Erik Dekker

Erik Dekker at the Tour, 2005

Born in Hoogeveen, Netherkands in this day in 1970, Hendrik "Erik" Dekker entered his first race when he was eight. He didn't win that one, but it wasn't long before he started winning others; when he turned 15 he was selected for the National Juniors Track Team, and two years later he won a silver medal at the World Juniors Championships.

By the time he won a silver at the National Amateur Championships in 1992, Dekker had already won stages at the important Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda and Olympia's Tour races - this promising track record, combined with two stage wins at the Österreich-Rundfahrt, a prologue victory at the GP William Tell, Stage 10 at the Tour de l'Avenir and first place at the Rund um Köln in the wake of his Nationals medal made him an obvious choice for the Olympic team and entered for the road race. He, together with Fabio Casartelli and a third rider managed to break away from the peloton during the event and could not be caught - Casartelli won, but Dekker's exuberance as he crossed the line earned him many new fans. He had begun riding for the Buckler team at the start of the year (managed by Joop Zoetemelk and Jan Raas, no less) and at the end he was given a full professional contract.

Dekker in 2011

1993 passed quietly, as tends to be the case when a rider first begins to compete at the top level, then in 1994 he won the Postgirot Open and a stage at the Tour of the Basque Country. He was also picked for the team's Tour de France squad and survived the race; he was 101st overall, but two 20th place stage finishes and one in 15th are respectable for a debutant. He won the Postgirot again the following year and managed to improve his Tour finish to 70th place, then slipped a few places in 1996 with 74th, racing that year in red, white and blue as National Independent Time Trial Champion. He performed less well again in 1997 with 81st, but got into the top ten on three stages, including coming near to the podium with fifth place for Stages 17 and 20. 1998 had to be written off due to injuries suffered in a crash, which may also account for 107th place in the 1999 Tour (it might have inspired him to seek a little chemical assistance towards proving he still had the ability to win too, because he got into a spot of bother with a suspiciously high haematocrit reading - indicating possible EPO use and/or a blood transfusion - and as barred from competition until his red blood cells had returned to an acceptable level); but he found better form than ever before in 2000 - after riding his first Giro d'Italia (and coming 121st), he went back to the Tour, won Stages 8 and 17, came 51st in the General Classification and fifth overall in the Points competition.

2001 was, overall, every bit as good: his Tour result slipped to 91st with victory in Stage 8, but he won the Road World Cup, the Vuelta a Andalucia, the Amstel Gold Race, the Profronde van Surhuisterveen and the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt. In 2002 he won Tirreno-Adriatico and another National Time Trial Championship, but 136th at the Tour seemed to be show that any chance he might once have had of breaking into the top ten overall or even winning the Points competition were now gone; also, new injuries badly affected his performance towards the end of the year and throughout the next. Nevertheless, after winning the National Road Race title in 2004 he was back in France and riding faithfully for the team, settling for 133rd place for himself and then cheering himself up with overall victory at the Ronde van Nederland; then he rode the Tour again in 2005 and for a final time in 2006.

Faithfulness to the team is very much the keyword when describing Dekker's career. Buckler picked up a new sponsor in Dekker's second year, becoming WordPerfect for two seasons; then became Novell for 1995. In 1996, it changed to Rabobank and is still known as such, the Dutch bank being one of the few sponsors who got involved in cycling and stuck with it (they also back women's cycling and other sports, being that very rare thing - a company that sponsors sports not only for advertising, but because it actually cares). Dekker stayed with them throughout, for his entire career, and since retiring from competition he has continued to serve them as a team manager.


Jessica Allen, born in Brecon, Wales on this day in 1989, earned a place on British Cycling's Olympic Development Programme in 2006 after being discovered by the Welsh Talent Team; that year she also won the Junior National Time Trial Championships for the first of two  consecutive years and came second at the Welsh National Road Race Championships, then in 2007 she won the Points race at the National Track Championships. In 2008 Allen competed in both the Under-23 and Elite National Road Race Championships, taking second place in the former and fourth in the latter as well as coming third in the National Individual Time Trial Championship.

Maria Blower, born in Leicester, Great Britain on this day in 1964, was third in the National Road Race Championship of 1982; second at the Nationals, third at the Tour of Norway and 29th at the Olympics of 1984; third at the Nationals and eighth at the Olympics of 1988 and third at the Nationals in 1989.

Settino "Timo" Sabbadini, born in Monsempron-Limos, France on this day in 1928, turned professional with Terrot-Wolber in 1950 and retired in 1964 after nine years with Mercier. He won numerous criterium races, but occasionally showed up on the podium in stage races too, sometimes in the most prestigious ones: in 1956 he won Stage 4 at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and in 1958 Stage 5 at the Tour de France.

Businessman Manfred Neun,who was born Heidenheim, West Germany on this day in 1950, and began his career  working in a bank and managing two businesses, one of them a horticultural firm and the other a bike manufacturer. A keen cyclist himself, he currently serves as President of the European Cycling Federation, where his knowledge of cycling and politics has allowed him to act as an effective bridge between cyclists and government. Under his leadership, the ECF has taken an increasingly scientific approach in its mission to promote cycling as sport and as a method of transport, allowing it to back up programs designed to improve cycling infrastructure with accurate studies and facts.

"Cycling means happiness, cycling is community building and as everyone can have a bicycle, cycling is democracy. We can be an example for the whole world. So let us all live like examples." - Manfred Neun

Other cyclists born on this day: Ross Reid (Great Britain, 1987); Preeda Chullamondhol (Thailand, 1945); Koji Fukushima (Japan, 1973); Rodolfo Guaves (Philippines, 1953); Ferenc Stámusz (Hungary, 1934); Carlos Mesa (Colombia, 1955); Samuel Hunter (Great Britain, 1894); Bernhard Eckstein (Germany, 1935); Carlos Alcantara (Uruguay, 1948); Daniel Steiger (Switzerland, 1966).

Cycling Evening News 01.05.12

Concerns over GreenEDGE's new sponsor - New women's race - Tour of the Gila - Iglinsky wants a Tour stage - Rabo and Astana at the Giro - Dehaes out for three weeks - No Giro for Dekker - Colorado velodrome closes - BBC Radio to broadcast Beryl Burton play - Other News - London mayor angers cyclists - Newswire

Racing
GreenEDGE's new sponsor is far from Green
GreenEDGE's new sponsor has been revealed to be Orica, a chemicals company with an international presence as the world's largest producer of mining explosives - and an unenviable environmental track record that has seen the organisation widely criticised since 2011 for its apparent reluctance to notify the New South Wales Environmental Protection Agency whenever an accident occurs (for example, the six serious incidents between August and December last year; including the release of 1kg of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium into the environment at Kooragang Island on the 8th of August last year, a leak that affected 70 households and which Orica failed to report to the authorities for 16 hours - the people living in those 70 households didn't get to hear about it for three days; or the arsenic leaked into the Hunter River during the hexavalent chromium clean-up operation; or the 900kg of ammonia leaked into the atmosphere from the Kooragang Island plant, ironically one hour before the EPA announced it was going to take Orica to court over the hexavalent chromium leak; or the mercury leak in December 2011 at a Port Botany plant that drove airborne sample readings to 245% the legal limit, which Orica kept quiet about until the 17th of January 2011).

The deal was questioned as soon as it was announced, chiefly for the reasons outlined above. Many people have since pointed out that 1t4i didn't come under attack when they revealed their own sponsorship deal with the Argos North Sea Group, a Rotterdam-based oil company. However, they're missing the point - it's not what Orica do, but the way they go about it. The oil industry has much to answer for, but Argos have never been charged with the sort of cavalier attitudes and apparent total disregard for the environment and public safety that Orica have displayed in the past (Argos also trade in biodiesel - which isn't entirely "environmentally friendly" but is a damn sight better than standard diesel - and operate "green energy" supplier HummelEnergy, incidentally).

We all know that top-level cycle racing isn't quite as environmentally-sound as we'd like it to be - all those official cars and motorbikes chuck out some serious pollution, as do the helicopters at the major races and the airliners that take the teams to the races. Also, with the world economy in the state it's in, teams can't afford to be too choosy about whose buck they take - chances are one or two others wouldn't hold up too well under close examination, either. It's also possible that Orica have cleaned up their act after some bad years and are now a fine example of how a chemical company ought to behave, and that they want to get involved in cycling as an expression of their new, green policies; but the fact remains that as far as the public are concerned Orica are evil. GreenEDGE's decision to link itself with a company that, in the eyes of many, is the Australian version of Monty Burns' nuclear power plant might prove an unwise one if it results in difficulties attracting sponsors in the future due to loss of current popularity. After all,  we judge people by the company they keep, which is a concept that will be very familiar those GreenEDGE rides who spent 2011 with HTC-Highroad - a team that did more than most to stamp out doping, yet died because sponsors didn't wish to be associated with a sport that they believed was tainted by a bad image.

It would be a very great pity if a team that has already done so much for cycling - including women's cycling, which they have no more obligation to take part in than the various other Pro Teams that do not - turned out to have shot itself in the foot during their very first season.

New women's race
News about women's cycling is, these days, all too often depressing - as has been the case in recent weeks with the demise of two races and shortening of another as organisers have struggled to find the financial backing they need to continue their events.

Very welcome, therefore, is news of a new race: after sixteen years as a men's race, the Baby-Dump Kempenklassement in the Netherlands is to be joined by a women's class that will be named the Kempenklassement voor Vrouwen.

Tour of the Gila

Leah Goldstein won the Tour of the Gila in 2008

The SRAM Tour of the Gila starts on Wednesday at Silver City in New Mexico. Since it began in 1987, the race has been dominated by American riders - American men have won eighteen editions, American women the same number - but changes to the UCI classification have brought ever-increasing numbers of top riders from elsewhere, as was the case last year when the men's race was won by the Spaniard Francisco Mancebo and the women's race by the Canadian Clara Hughes. Champion System - the first Asian ProTour team in cycling - will be making their American race debut at the event

There are some tough climbs along the way: Stage 2 reaches 2,278m above sea level, with the men and the women taking in the climb. Good quality maps and altitude profiles can be downloaded from the official race website, as can the complete "race bible."

Iglinsky wants a Tour stage

Maxim Iglinsky

"The next race I will participate in is theTour of Belgium," Astana's 31-year-old Maxim Iglinsky told press at a team conference. "Then I will ride in the Critérium du Dauphiné and I will compete to win, and then I will fight to win a Tour de France stage. I have always dreamed of winning a Tour de France stage."

Iglinsky denied rumours that his hotel room was searched prior to his unexpected winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège earlier this year, then said he also has his sights set on the World Championships: "All cyclists want to win the World Championship. The one who wins earns the right to put on the rainbow jersey and can then ride in it for the whole year - it is very prestigious. Yes, I've thought about that, too; I will be training for the Championships."

Moser wins in Germany
Moreno Moser won Germany's biggest one-day race the Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt after attacking the lead group in the final kilometre. The race was especially notable as the first since being injured during a training ride for the the current World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin, who split the peloton with an attack at the 44km to go point.

Moser's team mate Dominik Nerz was 5" behind him as he crossed the line, hotly pursued by Sergei Firsanov who took the same time.

Top Five
  1.  Moreno Moser Liquigas-Cannondale 4h54'16"
  2.  Dominik Nerz Liquigas -Cannondale +5"
  3.  Sergey Firsanov RusVelo ST
  4.  Tony Martin Omega Pharma-QuickStep ST
  5.  Andre Greipel Lotto-Belisol 24"
Full results (when available)

Rabo and Astana at the Giro
Two more teams have revealed their Giro line-ups. Unsurprisingly, following his two stage wins at the Tour of Turkey, Theo Bos is team leader for Rabobank with Graeme Brown and Mark Renshaw onboard to pick up sprint points while Stef Clement looks after time trials and Juan Manuel Gárate takes care of the mountains. Protecting them and ferrying the bidons are Tom Leezer, Grischa Niermann, Tom-Jelte Slagter and Dennis van Winden.

Astana are sending Roman Kreuziger as leader, backed up by a more all-rounder squad consisting of Alexandr Dyachenko, Enrico Gasparotto, Simone Ponzi, Kevin Seeldraeyers and Andrey Zeits. Tanel Kangert, Evgeny Petrov and Paolo Tiralongo will be the men for the mountains points. The team comes as something of a surprise as the squad was widely expected to include Alexandre Vinokourov.

Three weeks off for Dehaes
Lotto-Belisol's Kenny Dehaes injured his elbow more severely than was initially believed in a crash at the Tour de Romandie - X-rays have since revealed a fracture, and he has been told to rest for three weeks.

Kenny Dehaes ‏ @Kennydehaes
Took x ray from elbow and showed fracture... F*ck!!! 3 weeks out!! #damn.

Thomas Dekker

No Giro for Dekker
Thomas Dekker (Garmin-Barracuda) is pinning his hopes on the Tour de France after doctors told him to stay away from the Giro due to a knee injury sustained at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. "Starting the race would just be too risky - I could be forced to abandon after a couple of days. There's no point starting a Grand Tour unless you're 100%," the Dutch 27-year-old said.

Colorado loses one of its two velodromes
Days after the great news that Cleveland in Ohio is about to get a new velodrome - one that will be free for under-18s to ride - comes more depressing news that one of only two velodromes in Colorado will close after only three years. The Boulder track, housed in a converted warehouse alongside an indoor mountain biking course, has attracted far fewer riders than predicted - "The single biggest factor was the seasonality," said Bruce McPherson, president of the facility's management team. "We had riders for essentially four months of the year. We had a core group that rode all year long, but it wasn't enough."

BBC R4 to broadcast Burton play

Beryl Burton will be played by author
Maxine Peake

A dramatisation of Beryl Burton's life will be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 towards the end of this year. Titled La Yorkshire Dame a Bicyclette, the play will star Maxine Peake - who also wrote the script, her first - as Burton, who won numerous titles and set world records during the 1950s and 60s.

"Despite beating men and women in championships across the globe, Beryl received no support, training or sponsorship and in fact, very little acclaim in the UK and Maxine wanted to dramatise her story," says producer Justine Potter. No date has yet been set for the broadcast, but it is likely to go out in the station's 45-minute Afternoon Drama (formerly and popularly Afternoon Play) slot.

Radio 4 is available worldwide on the Internet.

Other News
"The Afghanistan women cycling team will compete in Pakistan for the first time in the National Cycling Championship" (Herald Tribune)

"South Korean Pro Cyclists Killed in Road Accident" (Bicycling)

"There’s absolutely no room for complacency, we have got to keep working hard" - Joanna Rowsell on the Olympics (British Cycling)

"Italian women turned away from Box Hill" (Cycling Weekly)

"Sky look ahead to Giro's team time trial" (Cycling Weekly)

"Women’s Cycling: The Winning Formula Continues" (Irishcycling.com)

Kristin Armstrong makes name for herself as Olympic champ (USA Today)

"74-year-old cycling enthusiast had a heart attack while competing in a 60-kilometre club race" (The Press, New Zealand)

"Tacks cause havoc at cycling event Tour of the South" (Herald Sun, Australia)

"Cyclists in inspired return to Trinidad & Tobago" (Guardian Media)


"Goss the key to Giro cycling success" (SBS Australia)

"Paula Radcliffe vows to campaign for tougher bans for drug cheats" (The Independent)

"Tour de France 2012 Videogames Confirmed for PAL Release" (ElectrinicTheatre)


Cycling
Boris' big gob bothers bikers

Boris - a bit of an idiot at times

Boris Johnson has based a large part of his London mayoral campaign on his own cycling credentials and the fine work he says he's done for the capital's cyclists during his time a mayor over the last five years - so it seems rather strange that he risked annoying the very people he's been courting for so long with some ill-advised comments yesterday at a hustings designed to highlight the candidates' commitment to cycling and cyclists' safety.

After showing up on his bike - points there, Boris - the tousel-headed Old Eonian scamp started to dig himself a hole. "I can humbly say to you, I may not conform to your idea of a stereotypical cyclist. I do not have whippet-thin brown legs or dreadlocks, I do not charge around in Lycra, I do not jump lights - and nor are you, but I ask you to recognise that I have cycling in my heart. I love cycling. I think it is wonderful and I will continue to invest in cycling," he told his audience, adding: "We have got to move away from the idea that - and I am sorry to say this, you can lynch me now - that cyclists are somehow morally superior to other road users" before the four main candidates went about trying to pick holes in one another's doubtless expertly massaged figures.

However, Johnson did promise that if re-elected he'll appoint a Cycling Commissioner (or cycling czar, as the newspapers have for some reason decided such a figure should be called) - something that many cyclists will be happy to hear. Provided, of course, that it's somebody capable of independent thought and with a genuine interest in cycling, not one of his jolly chums from school.

According to Londoners on Bikes, a biking advocacy group, he "has lost the bike vote."

Newswire
Britain
"Kingston women's cycling pioneer in line for award" (Your Local Guardian)

"New Cycle Surgery Store Opens Along Popular London Biking Route" (MarketWatch)

"Sky Ride Local group spawns beginner friendly Tees Valley Sportive" (British Cycling)

Worldwide
"Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession at 7 p.m. May 16 to remember those who have been killed or injured by a motorist while cycling on public roadways" (Argus Press, Michigan)